Karadzic gets 40 years for war crimes and genocide

Thursday, March 24, 2016 - 01:32

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is sentenced to 40 years in jail by U.N judges who found him guilty of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and nine other war crimes charges. Ashraf Fahim reports.

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EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
SOUNDBITE (English), PRESIDING JUDGE O-GON KWON, SAYING:
"The chamber hereby sentences you, Radovan Karadzic to a single sentence of 40, four zero, years of imprisonment."
The verdict was a long time coming.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, sentenced to 40 years in jail for genocide and war crimes.
Karadzic was arrested in 2008 after 11 years on the run...having led the Bosnian Serb Republic during the brutal civil war in Yugoslavia.
Karadzic was found guilty of 10 counts of war crimes and genocide including the notorious 1995 massacre in the town of Srebrenica, where 8,000 Muslims died in Europe's worst war crime since World War Two.
The judge also said the three-year siege of Sarajevo during which the city was shelled and sniped at by besieging Bosnian Serb forces could not have happened without Karadzic's support.
The verdict is expected to bring some comfort to the families of his victims... although some say, 40 years is not enough.
SOUNDBITE (Bosnian), SARAJEVO RESIDENT COLIC MUHAMED, WHOSE 9-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER WAS KILLED BY GRENADE IN 1993, SAYING:
"I see him on TV and he looks satisfied. His face looks more normal than my face is as I speak to you."
And it may not be the end of the matter.
Karadizic's lawyers say, they plan to appeal the sentence.